So far, I think this is the best I've seen of this series. And not only because most of it is drawn by Bryan Hitch, whose work I've enjoyed so much on The Ultimates--he also has, clearly, a knack for more traditional books as well. And he draws some pretty, pretty men. But I digress.
I'm going to break this discussion up a bit this time. This volume includes three mostly-separate story arcs with a common undercurrent--trust issues--and I'm going to talk about them separately within the same entry.
First story
In which an evil queen escapes from an enchanted storybook, mistakes Wonder Woman for her old nemesis Snow White, and attempts to remake the world in her own vision.
Cool things:
Green Lantern's knowledge of the history of fairy tales, similar to the way (in the last volume) Plastic Man possessed an expertise on bees. In neither case is this information they particularly sought out as useful--both just happen to have learned it and retained the knowledge--but in both cases a character who isn't necessarily portrayed as highly intelligent is able to take information he already possesses and make use of it in a dangerous situation, showing an additional aspect of the character.
They have a "commlink", and are not relying on J'onn's telepathy for intergroup communication.
Those characters who do not have a background where they'd logically be familiar with the Grimm/Anderson fairy tales (such as the Amazon Wonder Woman and the Atlantean Aquaman) do not know about them.
Things that made me laugh:
Flash and Green Lantern fighting over who gets to kiss Wonder Woman out of her Snow White coma:
But not to worry, at the last minute they are saved by Aquaman:
Given the story in the last volume, where Aquaman inadvertently reveals his well-hidden desire for Diana, I wonder whether at some point when things calm down these two sit down and have a talk. Especially after this volume's emphasis on honesty, trust, and openness. Well, perhaps not...
Questions:
So when the world is returned to normal at the end of the story--when, presumably, all the fictional characters who've been wandering the world return to their media--does that mean that poor Green Lantern gets his disappearing drawings back?
One would hope so.
Second story
In which the team battles the villain Destiny, who has developed seemingly-unlimited powers.
Also in this storyline, the team struggles at least as much, if not more, with their own issues than with the villain. Green Lantern and Aquaman interpret one another's comments in the worst way possible:
Flash and Platic Man lose any semblance of teamwork in their battle:
While even the most mature and rational heroes on the team, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter, have begun to show signs of incomplete trust in each other:
Meanwhile, Superman confronts Batman with the situation, blaming Batman's own lack of trust in his once-fellow team members for the team's current lack of trust in each other.
I'm not sure that Batman is making a real point here--it's not Superman who needs to prove his trustworthiness to the others, after all--but Superman seems to feel it is, and there's something to be said for not keeping these things secret from the people you trust with your life. (Although--having just read the Identity Crisis TPB--I'd say there are equally compelling arguments for keeping it secret from damn near everyone!)
Things that made me laugh:
The group's reaction to Superman's unmasking:
Third story
In which the trust issues kept just under the surface in the previous two tales come to the fore, and the team attempts to heal the rift by being more open with each other, revealing their secret identities. Soon after, they find that each member who maintained such a secret has been split in two parts, the super and the civilian identity. Meanwhile, inexplicable events are taking place all over the world.
I thought this was the strongest of the story arcs included in this book, although none were bad. The main story--the sixth-dimensional beings attempting to gain control over the wish-fulfilling entity called they call "Id"--is pretty good, but to me it was far less interesting than the split-identity premise. Each hero (apart from Aquaman and Wonder Woman, who do not maintain separate identities) is divided in two, one part with powers and the public persona's characteristics, the other with the private/civilian persona's characteristics and no powers, although it seems to play out differently for each character. This is what I found fascinating--the exploration of what each character seems to hold as that part of them that is exceptional.
Superman is divided, of course, into Superman and Clark Kent. As Superman he has his powers, of course, but what is it that Clark brings to the whole? Well, surprisingly, it's compassion and humanity. The Superman "half" is still a hero--still does good, is still an ethical being--but there is a distance there that wasn't there before. When, after his costume is destroyed in a fight, he changes it for a new, more (presumably) Kryptonian model, Wonder Woman suggests that he stick with the old one, saying that "with the world looking to us for comfort...this isn't the best time for a change." His reply: "It's not an issue. We have more pressing concerns than the emotion of the populace." Still a good person, but not the same person--not, any more, someone who relates to the people of Earth in as significant a way.
Batman. While the Batman persona retains the physical skill and intelligence of Batman, he lacks the drive he had as a whole person. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne attempts to enjoy the life of a wealthy playboy--he can finally go out on a date in the evening instead of spending it lurking on rooftops--but finds himself overreacting to things, becoming far more angry than situations call for. He wants to fight, but no longer has the ability.
Flash is a slightly different case. Unlike Batman and Superman, who adopt different personas (neither a mild-mannered reporter or a wealthy playboy are likely to be suspected of being a superhero) depending on whether they're in costume, Flash is pretty much the same guy regardless of whether he's on duty. Here the focus is on how his powers affect his personality rather than on any intentional change he may have made. And here, the Flash "half" keeps the powers and the go-go-go attitude, while Wally West is able to relax and take it easy (and, apparently, adopt something of a slacker mentality). And both Flash and Wally seem pretty happy with the way things are going.
Green Lantern seems to have been divided into potential and power. The Green Lantern half has the ring, and therefore the power. The Kyle Rayner half has the imagination--but, arguably, not the technical ability. He is unable to give his visions form. The reason given in the book is that he had grown accustomed to the superior creative potential of the ring and can no longer be satisfied with what he can do with traditional art forms; my own take on this is not that the ring is a better creative tool so much as that he now lacks the ability to create with any tool, a big problem since so much of what he sees as his essential self is tied up with his creative ability. Meanwhile, the Green Lantern half spends the entire book using the ring in exactly the same way--as an offensive weapon:
Martian Manhunter is divided into J'onn J'onnz and John Jones. I honestly found this one a little questionable, because you wouldn't expect J'onn's secret ID to have any real non-Martian substance. His uniqueness isn't based on the fact of his powers, it's based on his being an alien. Then again, I'm really only familiar with J'onn from the JLA books--never read anything about him in the Silver Age--so perhaps he does have a history of living a full life in human guise. The J'onn half keeps the powers and the alien viewpoint, the fear of fire and the loss of family. The John half has lost the telepathy and other abilities, but he has also lost the contant sorrow. He begs Aquaman to make sure that, if the JLA do figure out how to rejoin themselves, they leave him alone. (He also sits alone, lighting match after match and letting them burn down, a look of pure wonder on his face.)
Plastic Man. I'm always predisposed to like Plastic Man--the humor thing, I suppose--so this story's treatment of him was a real revelation. In the split, the Plastic Man half got the powers--and the humor. The Eel O'Brian half got the brains and forethought, along with any sense of appropriate behavior and boundaries. He lost, apparently, the impulse to be one of the good guys, and finds himself more and more drawn toward his "dark side"--his past as a petty criminal. He fights it, but is convinced that it's a fight he will inevitably lose, as the differences created by the split become more and more extreme--something he sees more clearly than do any of the others. I was impressed by this portrayal, by the fear O'Brian shows as he feels himself slipping back, of the genuine sense of menace when he's in "thug mode." A very different side to Plastic Man, and one that we now know lies buried underneath the frivolous surface--I like the character even more after this. Meanwhile, the Plastic Man half grows less and less stable, more difficult to work with, unable to hold a thought for more than a moment, likely to do anything if it strikes him as funny, even if unwise or inappropriate.
Although some of the heroes seem all right with the split (Martian Manhunter most of all, but Clark and Superman seem happy enough, as do Wally and the Flash), others find that their civilian halves are unable to make it through the day. And the split isn't a finished product--it's a work in progress, as the heroes and their other identities become more and more polarized. O'Brian sees this, and gathers the non-super halves together; the following exhange talks place between O'Brian and Bruce Wayne:
Overall one of the best things I've seen on what makes these people tick; as a relatively new reader, I was grateful for the peek into their psyches. If I was rating these books, which I'm not, I'd have to give this one a 9 out of 10. (The lost point is because there are some simple solutions that would have been better less eimple--Batman tells them he's Bruce Wayne and all of a sudden everything's all better? Not in the long run, I'm guessing.)
"Ew!" moments:
So when O'Brian gets the chance, he attempts to rejoin the heroes with their civilian identities. The results:
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